Specialist or generalist .

With gpt 5.0, generalist will do better in long run

I have a similar background. Here’s my Re.1 worth of advise based on the 11 years I’ve done this.

As a generalist, your superpower is the ability to learn different technology pieces quickly which, combined with good problem solving skills will make you indispensable to any org.

That said, you should build subject matter expertise in a few areas within the company. You can start building cross team rapport because you understand multiple systems well. This will make you the go to person for understanding overall architecture. Another way is to introduce new pieces of tech and spearheading it’s implementation across teams. That automatically makes you the authority for them

Being a generalist is great but you should think what stops you from being a speciality?

• are you afraid to deep dive into and therefore, have only superficial knowledge?
• Do you lack fundamental understanding on how systems/languages work that might be preventing you from deeply understanding concepts?

OR….

You just like to work across the stack?

When companies are making good money and expanding rapidly - specialist will get preference.

When economic condition is bad, multiple layoff going on, cost cutting - specialist are fired first and generalist are hired so they can do work of multiple people.